The drama that surrounds postseason basketball tournaments at different levels is the finality of seeing a season end with one loss.
With the NJCAA Division II Tournament, that still holds true as far as winning the national title, but there are some differences in the format.
South Arkansas College (21-8), the No. 17 seed, and Hocking (Ohio) College (23-6), the No. 16 seed, meet in the first round Monday at 11 a.m. at the Mary Miller Center in Danville, Ill.
The winner advances to face No. 1 seed Davidson-Davie (N.C.) Community College on Tuesday, but the loser of Monday’s game will not see their season end.
There will be consolation games for the four teams that fall in first-round games.
Should SouthArk or Hocking be downed in the second round on Tuesday, again, there is a second opportunity to continue playing.
Teams that lose in the second round are placed in an eight-team bracket with single elimination the rest of the way with the winner receiving seventh place. There are also games for fifth place and third place for teams that advance beyond the second round before losing.
Seeding is also a factor.
The eight schools that are seeded 13 and below play Monday with the winners advancing to play one of the top four seeds. The losers will play in the aforementioned consolation games before finishing their play in the tournament.
“We get to play a lot of basketball,” SouthArk coach Cam Robinson said. “We want to win out, go undefeated, just keep it going. Playing in the national tournament, you just want to appreciate every game that you play in up there. It’s different. When you think of March Madness, you think of the national tournament that’s a win-or-go-home deal, which it still kind of is, but you have a chance to still be able to compete and place yourself in something coming back.”
A benefit for the extra games allows coaches to get another look at players for recruiting purposes.
“It’s a big deal. They know it’s a big deal. They appreciate the opportunity,” Robinson said. “About midway through the conference season, not too many guys at that time had a lot of recruitment happening. I was letting them know that if you’re not happy with your recruitment or the lack thereof, you’ve got to start playing better.
“The more you win, the more coaches come. We got to the region tournament with a good seed, so that brought coaches out to want to see us play. Now you make another run, now that brings more coaches that want to see you play.
“We had new coaches come in the championship game against National Park, so as I told them, ‘If you win, they’re going to come and find you.’ Right now, we’re in that position where we’re going to a spot where they no choice but to be there because everybody is trying to find a player, everybody is trying to find that head piece that nobody knows about.”
Robinson said the Stars are enjoying the moment, but understand there is also business to tend to.
“That’s my mentality, but I honestly feel good about it,” Robinson said. “I haven’t overthought it or stressed about it. I was looking at the players’ mentality. Once we got to see who we were playing against, I think they picked up on my mentality as far as not getting overly excited or anything like that. It was just, ‘OK, that’s who we play, we’ve got to go handle business.’
“We’re back to having that chip on our shoulder. I told them yesterday that in the last couple of weeks, we’ve been proving people right because we’re winning and people believed that we could win and get to the next level. Now with the seed that we’ve got, we’re in a position again where we’re trying to prove people wrong.
“We’re back to having our backs against the wall and trying to make some non-believers believe again. We got a good story and people know about us because we beat National Park, but we’re not settled with just going and playing in it, we’re trying to win it.”